Page 18 - Crimes of 20th century

17. The O.J. Simpson Case, 1994

So ingrained are the details of the saga in living memory that it is, perhaps, pointless to
summarize them. The impression is of a hydra-headed debauch: it was a classic Hollywood
celebrity legal melodrama; a race-relations story; a marriage-gone-acrid; a foray into
detective work and into genetics; a primer on the jury system; proof of the overwhelming
profits to be made from tabloid TV; a domestic tragedy with feuding families; a comedy of
errors with irritating consequences. If the Crime of the Century has to be a congeries of
issues and emotions, then this is the contemporary champion. Indeed, it was done twice
because much of the public needed an alternative ending: the first jury acquitting; the
second jury finding civil wrong. And the saga is relived again and again whenever Simpson
decides it is time to get more attention (as he did at the end of 2006 with a proposed but
unpublished book that speculated on what he might have done if he were indeed the
murderer). The only tragic thing is that no one has seen prison for the horrendous murder
of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman on the night of June 12, 1994.

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